Bellflower High to salute drama teacher with 'War of the Worlds' radio show

BELLFLOWER - For nearly 30 years, the stage was Robert Newman's domain - the classroom where he taught hundreds of Bellflower High School students the arts of acting and directing.

"The best part of being a drama teacher is having uncovered their talents and teaching them to experience and discover the talent within them," Newman said recently.

On Saturday, several of his former students, many of whom have gone on to become successes in the entertainment industry, will pay tribute to the 90-year-old with a radio show open to the public based on the famous "War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles, one of his favorite actors.

Newman began a career in radio more than 60 years ago. But when that career choice "didn't pan out," he returned to college where he studied drama, he said.

He began his teaching career at Bellflower High in 1955 and continued there until 1982.

"That's almost 30 years worth of guiding students through the multifaceted world of the theater," said Harry Cason, a former student and director of Saturday's production. "The theater we're now in at Bellflower High was built specifically for him, in 1965, as a testament to the confidence and appreciation the school administration had for him."

The event will also raise money for the school, and already organizers have collected $3,000, Cason said.

"It's about paying back the public school. It's a facility that helped all of us. And it's been hurting," Cason said. "These students deserve to have the experience we had, so in honor of (Newman) we want to make his theater come back to the status it was (in) when we were there 40 years ago."

During his years at Bellflower, Newman personally produced and directed at least four major theatrical pieces each year. "I enjoyed it. I was playing, because I was doing my thing," he said. "I always wanted to be a director. And I liked directing more than acting, so becoming a teacher was right along that line."

Newman's techniques opened a whole new world of drama to students, Cason said.

"His direction and elegant style of teaching reached thousands of students, ... so much so that some of his students found the world he opened up to them so inviting they pursued their own path through the entertainment business," Cason said.

Cason, who graduated from Bellflower High in 1972, went to USC as a drama major. He attended The Julliard School in New York and went on to be an actor and a writer.

"I was on a couple of soap operas, some prime-time television, wrote plays, and am presently writing a feature film script," Cason said. "I still consider (Newman) the best drama teacher I've ever had, and I went to the best schools for the arts.

"He taught us that there was a dignity in drama and that it was possible to go on with that and have a career in it and have an honorable career."

Newman's popularity was the reason so many former students will gather Saturday.

"He was an inspiration to a lot of kids who went there, including my two sisters," said former student Kerry McCluggage, who became president of Universal Television and later Paramount Televison Group.

"You hear this kind of story here and there about different people in high school, and he was one of those teachers who inspired kids and got the best out of them and made them believe they could not just do the play at hand, but anything."